DUBAI: Set to open in 2025, Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Cultural District will be home to the Zayed National Museum, the Guggenheim, the city’s Natural History Museum, and a teamLab outpost, with director of the Louvre Abu Dhabi Manuel Rabate telling Arab News the hub aims to offer guests the chance to access world class museums in one location.
“What Abu Dhabi is doing in Saadiyat, doing in this district, it's to gather all sources of curiosity, creativity, inspiration, education. It's an incredibly bold, I would say, commitment and belief in the importance of knowledge, of connection, of openness,” he said.
The idea has been in motion for years, said Rabate and a lot of brain power has been put into building a concept that is interconnected and part of one narrative in the capital of the UAE.
“The idea to bring world class museums has been communicated for a while. What we see now is the critical moment where the plan is becoming a reality,” he said.
All the institutions in the district are collaborating on many levels, explained Rabate. Other than sharing the physical vicinity on the island, many of the entities tell different parts of the same story.
“For the visitor experience, it is extremely pleasant, I think, to be able to move from one to the other, going to Zayed National Museum in the morning, an exhibition at Guggenheim to then having dinner at the Louvre Abu Dhabi and maybe catching a late show at Berklee, there is collaboration between institutions. Each one has its own mandate and its own narrative,” he explained.
With art, historical and technological institutions, the Saadiyat Cultural District positions itself as a unique global platform dedicated to celebrating Abu Dhabi’s traditions and embracing modernity.
